“They’re going to again be a great defensive team,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any question about that. And they’re another year more experienced. They do have a couple of young players who appear to be rotation guys for them or potential rotation guys. They’ll bring some more energy.

“It’s going to come down to the same things — execution and what we can do against their star players. And that’s always going to be a big challenge.

“It’s a hell of a challenge on opening day.”

Made all the more challenging with the championship banner unveiling that will happen before the game.

“It’ll be a nice ceremony, however long it is,” Carlisle said. “But then we’ve got to forget about that and get ready to play. That’s always a challenge, but it’s something we talked about. We’ll be ready.”

Jason Terry said the Mavericks are excited about the celebration of their championship that came by beating the Heat in six games in the NBA Finals in June.

But mostly, they are simply happy to be playing basketball.

“Just to be able to play on Christmas after everything we’ve been through the last four or five months being locked out, and it’s finally here,” Terry said.

“People think it’s Miami and Dallas, no. It’s the fact that NBA basketball [is back], and we’re one of the first games being played. I’m excited for that.”